The decay and withering away of ECOWAS's role in West African Regional security

With the end of the Cold War, many countries accelerated their move towards regionalism. Although this was a common phenomenon for many Western countries such as those in the European Union (EU) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), it was considered new for developing regions lik...

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Main Authors:	Saley Idrissa Ibrahim, Zarina Othman, Nor Azizan Idris
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, UKM,Bangi 2014
Online Access:	http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7476/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7476/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7476/1/15ok.geografia-july2014-saley_etal-edam1.pdf

id	ukm-7476
recordtype	eprints
spelling	ukm-74762016-12-14T06:44:12Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7476/ The decay and withering away of ECOWAS's role in West African Regional security Saley Idrissa Ibrahim, Zarina Othman, Nor Azizan Idris, With the end of the Cold War, many countries accelerated their move towards regionalism. Although this was a common phenomenon for many Western countries such as those in the European Union (EU) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), it was considered new for developing regions like those in Southeast Asia and West Africa. Comparatively, in Asia, regional institutions like the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has existed for almost five decades since 1967. ASEAN’s role in managing regional conflicts has been partly praised by many, although its ‘non-interference’ principle remains debatable. Unlike ASEAN, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has been heavily criticized for its failure to make West Africa a more prosperous and stable region. It has in fact decayed in its efficiency and has become more dependent in the area of collective regional security management in the 21st Century. This trend has already started for a few years before the end of the last millennium. Currently, ECOWAS has clearly lost its vitality compared to its active security record of the early 1990s. Neo-realism was adopted in this study to explain the current West African situation. The findings highlighted the contributing factors that served as strong determinants of ECOWAS continued decline, and that gave way to extra-regional forces finding ready loopholes to encroach upon its regional sovereignty and weaken its independent initiatives. The article provides some innovative suggestions to help improve the institution in the long-run with the aim of contributing to a more prosperous and stable West Africa Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, UKM,Bangi 2014 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7476/1/15ok.geografia-july2014-saley_etal-edam1.pdf Saley Idrissa Ibrahim, and Zarina Othman, and Nor Azizan Idris, (2014) The decay and withering away of ECOWAS's role in West African Regional security. Geografia : Malaysian Journal of Society and Space, 10 (3). pp. 188-200. ISSN 2180-2491 http://www.ukm.my/geografia/v2/index.php
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia
building	UKM Institutional Repository
collection	Online Access
language	English
description	With the end of the Cold War, many countries accelerated their move towards regionalism. Although this was a common phenomenon for many Western countries such as those in the European Union (EU) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), it was considered new for developing regions like those in Southeast Asia and West Africa. Comparatively, in Asia, regional institutions like the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has existed for almost five decades since 1967. ASEAN’s role in managing regional conflicts has been partly praised by many, although its ‘non-interference’ principle remains debatable. Unlike ASEAN, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has been heavily criticized for its failure to make West Africa a more prosperous and stable region. It has in fact decayed in its efficiency and has become more dependent in the area of collective regional security management in the 21st Century. This trend has already started for a few years before the end of the last millennium. Currently, ECOWAS has clearly lost its vitality compared to its active security record of the early 1990s. Neo-realism was adopted in this study to explain the current West African situation. The findings highlighted the contributing factors that served as strong determinants of ECOWAS continued decline, and that gave way to extra-regional forces finding ready loopholes to encroach upon its regional sovereignty and weaken its independent initiatives. The article provides some innovative suggestions to help improve the institution in the long-run with the aim of contributing to a more prosperous and stable West Africa
format	Article
author	Saley Idrissa Ibrahim, Zarina Othman, Nor Azizan Idris,
spellingShingle	Saley Idrissa Ibrahim, Zarina Othman, Nor Azizan Idris, The decay and withering away of ECOWAS's role in West African Regional security
author_facet	Saley Idrissa Ibrahim, Zarina Othman, Nor Azizan Idris,
author_sort	Saley Idrissa Ibrahim,
title	The decay and withering away of ECOWAS's role in West African Regional security
title_short	The decay and withering away of ECOWAS's role in West African Regional security
title_full	The decay and withering away of ECOWAS's role in West African Regional security
title_fullStr	The decay and withering away of ECOWAS's role in West African Regional security
title_full_unstemmed	The decay and withering away of ECOWAS's role in West African Regional security
title_sort	decay and withering away of ecowas's role in west african regional security
publisher	Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, UKM,Bangi
publishDate	2014
url	http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7476/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7476/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/7476/1/15ok.geografia-july2014-saley_etal-edam1.pdf
first_indexed	2023-09-18T19:49:49Z
last_indexed	2023-09-18T19:49:49Z
_version_	1777406143825444864

The decay and withering away of ECOWAS's role in West African Regional security

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